If BP gets totally screwed if might make some company pay better attention to safety. The bean counters need to know that safer is always cheaper.

I agree. Most companies right now know they can get away with a lot of foul ups.

And yes, to respond to an earlier post, I blame the gov'ts that allow it as well. They have sold out to lobbyists and that is a shame. That doesn't mean I'm not going to put the blame where it ultimately lies and that is in irresponsible workmanship and company oversight.

If it were feasible to live without electricity and cars and such, people would ban a company like this, and their profits would drop. These companies know that these goods are relied upon though, and thus some get a complex that they can cut corners as they like.

If you know anything about me, you know that I'm not big on overreaching government regulations...and maybe that's where the real problem stems from, the fact that it's our usually inept government overseeing this. All I know is something needs to be done to hold companies, both small and large, accountable for the damage they cause.

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Look at these eyebrows. These are attack eyebrows! They could take off bottle caps!

If BP gets totally screwed if might make some company pay better attention to safety.

Or have the company channel its inner Exxon (which apparently is the industry leader in safety post-Valdez while BP was a clown parade) and go scorched earth by making everyone lawyer up and litigate the claims through appeal. Given how the Supremes have gutted the ability to bring class actions good luck for small plaintiffs under that scenario.

Or have the company channel its inner Exxon (which apparently is the industry leader in safety post-Valdez while BP was a clown parade) and go scorched earth by making everyone lawyer up and litigate the claims through appeal. Given how the Supremes have gutted the ability to bring class actions good luck for small plaintiffs under that scenario.

Yep, need to put that liability exposure in the law on the pipeline. No waivers, no immunity.

Mr. Burkhardt really needs to get his story down before commenting to the media

Two days ago his version of reality was the following

The chairman of the company whose train exploded in downtown Lac-Mégantic says he is certain it was tampered with.

“We have evidence of this,” said Ed Burkhardt, of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway. “But this is an item that needs further investigation. We need to talk to some people we believe to have knowledge of this.”

The doctor from a nearby village wanted Ed Burkhardt, the chairman of Maine, Montreal and Atlantic Railways, to see the sign and take action.

“He could certainly make sure that it never happens again,” said Lefebvre.

Burkhardt arrived Wednesday morning in Lac Megantic, a Quebec town decimated after a runaway MMA train hurtled into downtown early Saturday morning, derailed and exploded. Burkhardt announced that Tom Harding, the engineer who left the train, has been suspended and will likely not work for the company again.

“I have never been involved in anything remotely approaching this in my whole life,” he said, as angry residents heckled from behind the media scrum on a Lac Megantic street.

Burkhardt said it now appears that Harding didn’t properly set the handbrakes on the rail cars.

“He’s not being paid, I don’t think he’ll be back working for us,” said Burkhardt.

A throng of media gathered outside the school that became an emergency shelter after the blast, where Burkhardt appeared shortly after 1 p.m.

The railway boss explained that he had stayed in Chicago to deal with the crisis in his office, where he was better able to communicate with insurers and officials in different places during what he described as 20-hour work days.

“Am I a compassionate person?” Burkhardt said.

“I feel absolutely awful. I am devastated by what’s happened.”

Burkhardt promised an energetic response to the humanitarian crisis. He said it would partner with the Red Cross, insurers and governments to help fund humanitarian aid and reconstruction of homes.

“Our financial resources are going to be devoted to this,” said the veteran railman.

“This comes first.”

It was plain someone had tampered with the locomotive of the MMA train before the explosion, and it has now emerged that it was the fire department, Burkhardt told reporters.

“Were they negligent in their tampering? I think not,” he said.

The chair has come under fire for the company’s response to the disaster, which has left 15 people dead and 45 others missing.

Initially press releases, of which there have only been two, were issued only in English, infuriating residents of the mostly French-speaking town. Later, releases came out in poorly-translated French.

“We’re French Canadians here and the fact that it was an English press release with later maybe a 5-year-old kid that made the translation, it just shows the level of respect and care,” said Jean St-Pierre.

Burkhardt has offered accounts of the events that led to the driverless train hurtling into downtown that were later disputed by local firefighters.

Burkhardt said local firefighters shut down a locomotive to put out a blaze, and that resulted in the train’s brakes releasing. The fire department and transportation safety board later said a company employee was onsite.

“I didn’t like (Burkhardt)’s attitude, what he said about the firemen in Nantes,” said Lefebvre.

And Burkhardt waited until Tuesday before flying to Montreal to make his way to Lac Megantic, about 250 kilometers away.

Ghislain Bolduc, member of the national assembly for the area, said the visit was later than it should have been.

“I think he should have come earlier,” said Bolduc, noting that anger is rising in the wake of the tragedy.

Burkhardt quipped about having to wear a bullet-proof vest when he visited.

Queens University professor Ken Wong said the first thing a company executive should have done was show up and provide constant updates to local residents.

“I think it would have been important for him to be there to relay the gravity of the situation,” said Wong.